It is well known to formulate aqueous liquid detergents with enzymes. The enzymes incorporated in liquid detergents have mostly been Bacillus proteases, it has also been suggested that incorporation of enzymes other than Bacillus proteases may be useful, e.g. other enzyme types (such as amylases, lipases and cellulases) as well as enzymes of non-Bacillus origin (e.g. fungal enzymes). However, a major problem which has been encountered with such compositions is ensuring sufficient storage stability of the enzymes in such compositions.
Solving the problem of stabilization of enzymes in liquid detergents has been applied in a variety of ways. It is suggested that a number of commonly used detergent ingredients which may reduce storage stability, e.g. anionic surfactants and detergent builders be removed from the detergent composition. It is known that some enzyme stability is generally reduced by the incorporation of a detergent builder. It has also been suggested that various materials that are not detergent-active can be incorporated as enzyme stabilizers.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a liquid enzymatic detergent composition having improved storage stability.